In the evening, I met up with my friend Beni who’s always country-hopping due to work assignments. For the past 8 months, he’s been living it up in Tokyo! Dude loves it there.

Bar counter at Gonpachi

He brought me to this neat Japanese restaurant called “Gonpachi” for dinner.

Yakitori and tempura at Gonpachi

We had yakitori (grilled chicken skewers) and tempura with sake and shochu! I never fancied the taste of sake and found myself liking shochu better. (this is a prelude to our drinking session which would commence later that night.)

Throughout the entire meal, our waiter was extremely polite and helpful, much like everyone else at the restaurants I’ve visited in Tokyo. I wonder how they maintain such high service standards. The best part is that we don’t incur any service charge or taxes at restaurants; the amount we pay is the exact amount that’s printed on the menu.

Ginza at night

This is Ginza at night, an expensive district that’s the equivalent of fifth avenue in New York city. Various designer brand houses can be found here.